Saint Samuel Ferguson

No institution has been more pervasive or pernicious than slavery.  Granted, the practice was not known to every ancient culture: for example, the early Basques knew nothing of it and their language had to borrow from the Latin to have a word for 'slave.'  Yet the great Roman and Greek Empires were built on slavery, and although it provides cheap labour, it also creates some social problems.

For example, in the early US there were slaves who had been manumitted by their masters.  What does a society do when its economics are built on the notion that Africans are inferior, even sub- human, but then there are free Africans move around in the midst of their "betters."  In 1824, the American Colonization Society was formed in an attempt to export free Blacks back To Africa.  President James Madison arranged government funding of the project, which was continued with enthusiasm by his successor James Monroe.  The result was the Republic of Liberia founded in 1847, with its capital Monrovia, named for President Monroe.  Some free slaves chose to remain in North America; others answered the call to the adventure.

One such family were the Fergusons who repatriated in 1848 with their six-year-old Samuel who attended mission schools sponsored by our Episcopal Church.  Samuel was ordained a deacon in 1865 and a priest two years later.  Then in 1885 he was ordained the first American-born Black to become the Bishop of Liberia.  He is one of our newly-minted Saints of the Episcopal Calendar.

Bishop Ferguson founded Cuttington University which continues to serve the needs of Liberians.  Ferguson believed that a strong spiritual and educational foundation is needed to transform a society.  In that way he honoured one of the most fundamental traits of Anglicanism which is to stress both the heart and the head in Christian life.  The Episcopal Church continues to have the most highly educated membership of all Christian affiliations in America.   We prize education, thus we are not afraid of science and remain open to new information and truths. We have the courage to course-correct when we realize that we have been wrong.  Open to the Spirit, we lead from strength.